Stephon Marbury hasn’t been such a bad guy

Saturday

This might be a different Marbury, a humbled Marbury after a trip through professional oblivion. Of course, joining the reigning NBA champ Celtics makes the thought process a lot clearer.

Stephon Marbury holds a special place in the hearts and minds of NBA people – somewhere between All-Star and ax murderer. Danny Ainge is leaning toward the All-Star side, which is why he has sort of stalked the newest Celtics guard.

“I followed Steph’s career from freshman year to Georgia Tech,” said the Celts general manager after Marbury was introduced to the media Friday night. “I’ve gotten to know Steph a little bit in some personal dealings with him out in Phoenix. I believe that there’s a lot more good in Steph than bad. Having said that, yeah, you’re always concerned that some of the experiences and some of the troubles that he’s been involved in continue to carry over, mistakes that he made as a young player in a weak moment. So, yeah, I’ve thought long and hard about those things.”

It seems to have been a good thought. In his Celtics debut Friday night, Marbury started slowly and finished fast, scoring six of his eight points amidst a 14-4 second-half run that powered the Celtics’ 104-99 win over the Indiana Pacers. For a player who hasn’t done much in a year, it was a nice debut.

“In the second half,” said Celts coach Doc Rivers, “you could see his basketball IQ.”

So could the crowd, which accorded him a standing ovation as he entered the game late in the first quarter, prompting a high five from a young fan at courtside. It was quite a shock to the man who was so vilified in New York.

“I was so happy to be out there playing,” he said. “I felt great, rejuvenated, happy, especially when the crowd was clapping.”

This might be a different Marbury, a humbled Marbury after a trip through professional oblivion. Of course, joining the reigning NBA champs makes the thought process a lot clearer.

Regardless of the cloudiness of some of his thinking in the past, Marbury – now 30, a 12-year vet and two-time All-Star who has perennially ranked among the NBA assist leaders, has a good grasp on his new job. He says he’s not here to replace Rajon Rondo (who had 17 assists). He simply wants to play and win. He seems genuine, although a lot of New Yorkers will laugh at that.

The Celtics needed something, and this obvious last piece of the puzzle was added several days after they added a little length in Mikki Moore, and maybe about 40 hours after the misfortunes of young backup Gabe Pruitt came to light. At the same time the Celtics announced Pruitt had been suspended two games from conduct detrimental to the team, they announced the signing of Marbury.

Marbury has pretty much been sitting for more than a year, partly because of ankle surgery last January. He’d missed numerous games for injuries before, but his most serious violations had been a couple of fines for wearing his shorts too long.

The honeymoon really soured in New York, though, first when he clashed with coach Larry Brown, leading to Brown’s departure. It began going really, really, really downhill when Donnie Walsh took over as Knicks president and Mike D’Antoni became coach this year. Marbury was fined $182,000 for missing a game in November and $400,000 (two games pay) for refusing to play in another.

Ainge was on top of the situation.

“Last summer I had heard some rumblings that with the new regime in New York … They were bringing Chris Duhon in to be the point guard,” Ainge said, “and I’d kind of heard through the grapevine that they’d promised Chris to be the starter, and so there was some discussion about that. So I started thinking about that then.”

Marbury had been cooling off in Los Angeles and was seen sitting courtside at Lakers games.

“I never hesitated on my decision as far as going forward with the Knicks,” he said. “The situation was what the situation was, so I was prepared to play or not play.”

He would like Bostonians to know he’s not an ax murderer: “I’m human. I make mistakes and I’ve learned from my mistakes.”

After one night, those mistakes seem to be forgotten. He’s got a lot to learn, but he picked up one thing really quickly. “They play defense,” he said. “That’s the only thing they were talking of.”

The other lesson: Celtics fans are real. “I wanted to cry,” he said of their response. “I was so happy. I didn’t know how they’d respond.” When he hit his first jumper, he said, “it felt great, especially when the crowd went crazy.”

Mike Fine may be reached at mikefine@ledger.com.

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